Comprehensive cancer navigation to improve health equity, reduce delays in treatment, and improve patient outcomes in Los Angeles County

About the Program

Category: Health (Best in Category)

Year: 2023

Comprehensive patient navigation is recognized by the National Cancer Institute to be a standard of care in the provision of high-quality, cost-effective, patient-centered cancer care (JNCI, 2014) . The Los Angeles County Department of Health Services (LADHS) provides a significant amount of cancer services to patients from socioeconomically vulnerable groups who face greater structural barriers to care. To address these disparities, LADHS launched a comprehensive cancer patient navigation program to improve care coordination, reduce delays in treatment, and improve patient experience. The program utilizes a multidisciplinary team-based approach to help patients better understand their diseases, coordinate with their care teams and facilitate all stakeholders to navigate potential barriers to care. Within the first year of the program, navigator teams have helped lead the standardization of cancer patient identification and referral, formation of a new governance model and guidelines foe cancer treatment and outcomes, and led to an increase in the proportion of patients referred to oncology within goal timeframe following a new diagnosis of breast cancer.